


Swan song

by smiling_elenilin



Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-16
Updated: 2015-08-16
Packaged: 2018-04-15 01:22:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4587687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smiling_elenilin/pseuds/smiling_elenilin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maglor and his wife have died and have met once more. They speak of their past and what could have been.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Swan song

"Do you recall how we met?"

"Yes...it was in a night when brightly shone the stars. And you refused me a dance."

A faint smile passed on her face. "Yet, in all the nights that came afterwards I granted you a dance."

"So long are the years that have passed and yet I still find your dance enchanting," he said, "You have always fascinated me. Is your heart still mine?"

The answer was refused to him as she gathered her thoughts. _What have I done? From all I promised to fend her, though I failed to secure her from myself._

She sought her answer still. _'Yea' I would have said had the times been unlike these. Yet he has turned to a nér I know no more. And it is said Eldar cannot die..._

"I cannot scorn you. I have indeed sought so to do and each time I failed. Yet, tell me: how am I to give my heart when I am...devoid of such a thing?"

He sighed. "I am not bold enough to ask you this, neither forgiveness." And it seemed to him he heard the sorrowful sighs of hers when she wept. Was it indeed that she wept or was it a memory awakening, reminding him of how she had unknowingly earned herself the name Nimbrennil, Tearful Lady? _Or have I given it to her? From all I promised to fend her..._

"Why?" she asked. _Whom is it that I speak to? Is he Macalaurë, the gentle poet, or Canafinwë, the firm lord?_ But it seemed to her none of them was there then. _Maglor. I must not forget Maglor._

"Lírinya...you have given me both heat and ice. And so I have given to you. Yet so stained are my hands I fear, at the slightest touch, your skin so fair would bear the filth which lies on my palms," he answered. The world was there no more, there, where truth was laid bare before him.

"Meldanya..." The woman rolled her weary self to turn her ghostly eyes to him. "I did not fear your touch and I will not begin to fear it now. I fear what lies deeper in your being, that facade you have never revealed to me. I have forgiven you once, yet...two more times? Why?"

His eyes met hers. "I did not march to battle to win the day. I marched to battle to fall. You had been lost to me. Our son had also been lost. What remained was the Oath and I had grown weary of it."

"It was not by my will that I left you. Had I been there, would you have marched to battle still? Would you have chosen the Silmaril or me?"

"I could have had none of you nonetheless, regardless my choice."

"You could have had me. And our boy...our boy, love of mine!" Joy came and passed from her face. "He was so...lovely and lively!"

"And yet he paid the price for my Oath as well. All crumbled. We have grown to be...shattered."

"Shattered and yet the shards that we are still match to remake a tiny part of what there once was. Hold me!" Her fëa clung to his.

And he fulfilled her wish. Though nothingness dwelt in the Halls of Waiting, it seemed her warmth time and death had not taken. _She was a living fire, my fire, my...Ilinnárë._

Though nothingness dwelt in the Halls of Waiting, she perceived the safety he offered her time had not marred. _He was so gentle, my gentle poet, my...Laurërómë._

And together they wept.

**Author's Note:**

> The swan song is a reference to the death of the wife. Swans show their true beauty when they die. I see it this way: Maglor learned the value of the oath of marriage through two deaths: the one of his wife and of his son, both placed before the two Kinslayings that take place in Middle-Earth. This I have done as I think these deaths would mark a moment from where his spiritual decay would be intensified.
> 
> _______________________
> 
> Ilinnárë means "blue fire" in Quenya. It is the epessë Maglor gave to his wife as she is a woman with a fiery heart, in the sense that she is stubborn and her love is intense as it is true, passionate, even jealous or possessive at times.
> 
> Laurërómë means "gold voice." The wife gave this epessë to Maglor to show her appreciation for his song as he was a much more talented musician than her. 
> 
>  
> 
> ______________________
> 
> Lírinya is the wife's "pet name" and it means "my song". The wife calls him meldanya, which is "my beloved".
> 
> ______________________
> 
> Laereth Nimbrennil is the wife's Sindarin name. Laereth is a translation of her father name, Líriel (=song-daughter). Nimbrennil was more like a nickname she received due to the grief her father's death caused her. However, it is also a sort of prediction for the finality of her fate.


End file.
